A hurt and proud Spain hopes to continue the good feelings of the European Championship at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next summer
Frustration and pride. Those were the two words the Spanish players repeated most often after they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Euro Cup for women against host nation England, after signing their best game in recent years. A painful defeat that came into extra time with a long shot, after the draw in an isolated game, after over 80 minutes of overwhelming dominance by La Roja.
A brutal outcome in a tournament in which Jorge Vilda’s team began to row against the tide because of the more-than-sensible victims of Jenni Hermoso, the team’s historic scorer, and Alexia Putellas, the Ballon d’Or winner and the most important piece of the team, who forced the plan to reinvent. With some distress they made it through the group stage, stood up and offered their best version in the quarter-finals, a draw in which they were dropped from the battle for the title for the third consecutive edition.
“We’ll have to process it in a few days, see what we can improve on and hope that in the future, when we have a moment as important as this, the wind doesn’t work against us and we have the setbacks we’ve had.” since the concentration began,” said coach Jorge Vilda after the game, who did not hesitate to cheer on his team in a tangle on the green. “I told them that everyone was very proud of them. If there’s one way to lose, it’s to play a game like this.”
In 2017, they were also eliminated in a hard-to-digest way. On that occasion, Austria’s executioner sent them home in the penalty shootout after their goalkeeper stopped Silvia Meseguer’s shot, one of the best in the team at that event. In England, the thrills went from less to more, until they saw a Spain capable of anything against the most fit rival in the championship, one of the all-time favorites to win the title, which no team had managed to score, keeping their team dry. goalscorer in the group stage.
All this, together with the overwhelming attitude of all the players and the steps forward that women’s football has taken in Spain in recent years, means that this defeat is almost seen as a key to victory with a view to the future, as Aitana Bonmati noted. out, voted MVP of the match against Finland and Denmark. “We deserved the win, we were better. I’m frustrated, but also proud. We have to get the good things out of these games, which always help you get better and grow.” That’s why Spain is already thinking about the World Cup to be held next year in Australia and New Zealand.
“We’ve had a team for a long time, with a future for what we’ve seen and what comes from below,” said Vilda, winking at the successes achieved each year in the lower categories, and that will ultimately have an impact on the bottom line. absolute.
This England v Spain game has served for much more, it became the fifth largest crowd in the league’s entire history, gathering 28,994 fans at Brighton’s Community Stadium, which was nearly full and surpassed by just over a hundred. to those who witnessed the biggest win in European Championship history (both women and men) ten days ago with England’s 8-0 defeat to Norway. In the final, to be played at Wembley next Sunday, July 31, it is expected to break all records in this competition, surpassing the nearly 69,000 people who gathered for the opening game between the hosts and Austria.
Another record was also reached in Spain, in this case by audience, as this match was the most watched women’s football in history, with an average of 2.4 million viewers on TVE’s La 1, a figure that over the course of the match 3 million. extension. La Roja’s defeat also won the ‘golden minute’, with a 29.7% share and more than 3.5 million viewers. Figures that once again show that something is changing.
Source: La Verdad
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